One of the most troublesome things ever anyone can go through is losing their phones. In a time where we are basically living our lives through our screens, and we depend on so much on our phones for day to day usage, losing our phones is nothing but a nightmare. However, it is not a perfect world out there, and it is a reality that in some point of our lives, as painful as it might sound, we might lose our phones. Or, come across someone in our family or friends, who could have lost their phone. Now, there are measures to safeguard against this loss, against your phone being damaged, lost or stolen via insurances, but they are a different hassle. But, there is a new way using which you can locate your phone, and this is unlike all the other ways available out there using which you have been trying to locate your phone. Using this new method launched by the Government of India called the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), the users who have lost their phone will be able to check the location of their device.
How Is CEIR Better than Google’s Find My Device
To recall, the first time we heard of the CEIR project was back in September 2019 while it was in the pilot testing phase. However, now three months later, the project has been launched for the public as well, and currently, people in Mumbai and Delhi will be able to use the service to retrieve their lost or stolen devices. Eventually, the service will be launched in other areas of India as well and slowly to the entire country. This new portal has been developed by the Center for Development Telematics (CDOT), Delhi Police, and the Department of Telecom (DoT). This feature will be different from the closest possible solution available to the users, which is Google’s Find My Device.
But, the issue with Find My Device has been that the phone should have an internet connection and have the Find My Device feature turned on to actually show up on the map. This is the reason why the Find My Device fails to work for a lot of users at times. In the case of CEIR, however, the users will not require anything more than their IMEI number to find their device, and there is also need for an active internet connection or an ID to be logged in.
Steps to Find Your Device Using CEIR
In case you have lost your phone, or it has been stolen, then the first step to track your phone from CEIR would be would to register an official police complaint of your phone being stolen at the nearest police station. The second step in the process would be to go to the CEIR website https://ceir.gov.in/Home/index.jsp where you will have to block the phone’s IMEI number. At this page, you will be asked to enter details to Block Stolen Device. You will be requested to enter details like mobile number, device brand, lost place, lost date, owner’s name, address, identity proof, and more. On finishing, enter the OTP, accept the declaration and submit the form. After this, you will receive a Request ID which can be used to track your stolen phone.
Unblocking IMEI After Finding Device Using CEIR
Once you have retrieved your mobile phone, you will have to unblock your phone. For this, you will again have to visit the CEIR website, but this time you will have to go to the ‘Unblock Found Mobile’ option. Here you will have to enter request ID and mobile number and click on Submit. You will also be able to check the status of your IMEI number as well from the CEIR website.
